{"id":19010,"date":"2011-08-18T10:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T14:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=19010"},"modified":"2015-12-27T15:46:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T20:46:37","slug":"personifying-the-pump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=19010","title":{"rendered":"Personifying the Pump"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were ten in the bed…<\/em><\/p>\n

Okay, it’s not quite ten in the bed, but it’s not far from that.\u00a0 On a typical night Mike<\/a> and I share our bed with Adam, the giant baby who still wants to nurse, two cats, and for the last two months we’ve had something else in the bed, too.\u00a0 An insulin pump.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The pump, I think, has officially become part of the family.\u00a0 It’s official because I have begun to personify it.\u00a0 I haven’t named it, but I’ve begun to feel the urge to nurture it like I do the other beings in the bed.\u00a0 When I’m worried about nighttime hypoglycemia, I peek at Mike and tap him to make sure he’s okay.\u00a0 I cover Adam with the sheet when I’m worried he might be cold.\u00a0 I pet the cats when they stick their noses in my face.\u00a0 And when I see that little pump, curled up with Mike, I think (jokingly, of course) that maybe I should give it a tiny pillow, perhaps a “pump blankie.” (Mike, I imagine, thinks of his pump in more masculine terms.)<\/p>\n

Since the pump is attached to Mike he – obviously – feels its presence much more than I do.\u00a0 But I am very much aware of the pump.\u00a0 It’s not because it’s bothersome.\u00a0 It’s not because it’s a constant reminder of diabetes.\u00a0 It’s simply because the pump is always<\/em> with us.<\/p>\n

For some families a meal begins with grace or a blessing.\u00a0 In our home a meal begins with a little bit of pressing pump buttons.\u00a0 I’ve been trying to figure out why this creates a different feeling than injecting with a pen.\u00a0 Is it because Mike didn’t usually inject at the table?\u00a0 Is it because the pen didn’t stay with us at the dinner table?\u00a0 Or is it just because I’ve personified the pump, and begun to think of it as part of the family?\u00a0 Perhaps it’s those feelings that make me more aware of the pump than I was of the pen.<\/p>\n

In bed I notice the pump the most.\u00a0 It’s not unlike the cats in its intrusiveness, its tail-like tubing, and the way we must push it out of the way to have a comfortable intimate moment.\u00a0 Last night when I lay beside Mike in bed he took off his pump so we could be close.\u00a0 I spooned against him in the space that’s now usually reserved for the pump.\u00a0 He’s free for a few minutes<\/em>, I thought.\u00a0 I turned around to face him, not being careful.\u00a0 I didn’t need to be.\u00a0 But I’d forgotten completely about one thing- the infusion set stuck on his side, slightly above his hip.\u00a0 My leg brushed against the plastic tabs that stick out when the pump is not attached. “Ow!” I said.<\/p>\n

In the morning when I went to shower I noticed a scratch on my leg.\u00a0 “How weird,” I said to Mike.\u00a0 “One of the cats scratched me at night and I didn’t even feel it.”\u00a0 It was only later in the day when the scratch stung a bit, that I recalled the evening before, my leg against the infusion set.<\/p>\n

It scratches like a cat, too, <\/em>I thought.\u00a0 So perhaps I’m not personifying the pump, but rather attributing cat-like qualities to it.\u00a0 Is there a word for that?\u00a0 Could zoomorphism<\/em> work?\u00a0 I don’t know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":53098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1501],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiabetes in Bed and the Personification of an Insulin Pump<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last night when I lay beside Mike he took off his insulin pump. I turned around to face him, not being careful. 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